Blog Week Ending 19 December

As we head towards the end of term it is with a real sense of pride in the achievements of the students and the community. We have donated 66 Hampers to the local community, split between the local elderly residents and families in need. It was amazing to see the generosity of students and staff in this and my thanks to you all for making it so positive. We also had a superb Christmas market run by our PFA 100 Hampers on the Hamper Tombola, it was a truly superb day raising nearly £2,000 of much needed funds for the school which I am sure you will agree is a real achievement, my thanks to Denise Fry and Shalene Lemmie the Chairs of the PFA and all of their helpers.

Pictured below, our Year 12 WG6 students helping transfer our donated Christmas hampers to St Michael and All Angels church representatives who will distribute them to deserving families and elderly citizens in our local community – I have no doubt that the hampers will brighten every recipient’s Christmas!

Christmas lunch was, as you would expect, a wonderful occasion that captured the spirit of Christmas! Staff and students donned their Christmas jumpers enjoying a shared meal with crackers and music adding to the festive fun!

The Wilmington Grammar Carol Concerts were wonderfully uplifting events. Students from WGSG, WGSB and WG6 joined to celebrate with beautiful performances and seasonal readings. The quality of the students’ pieces was exceptional, with a mixture of musical genres and drama pieces. Thank you to Miss Cullingham, Mr Williams and the other staff who helped make the evening special, as well as everyone at St Michaels and All Angels Church. Most of all, thank you to all the student contributors, you were amazing – a perfect Christmas Concert.

Miss Cullingham, Head of Performing Arts organised a very seasonal trip for our students … a trip to the theatre to see a wonderfully festive Pantomime .. Sleeping Beauty! Students (and staff!) thoroughly enjoyed the high-energy performance and opportunities for audience participation!! Year 7 students have been exploring the Pantomime genre in their Performing Arts lessons and this was a perfect opportunity to further research before staging their very own mini-Pantos as part of their House Challenge for Drama. Miss Skrine, Head of Year 7 set our students the challenge .. and they did not disappoint! What a thrilling event – congratulations to all students!

GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition students have been learning complex skills and in this suitably festive practical lesson made Yule Logs. Students perfected the tricky skills required to make a light malleable sponge, a balanced ganache icing and flavoured cream filling – excellent work, a very festive treat.

This week we welcomed back our WG6 student alumni of last year for a reception and A Level certificate presentation evening. To see them confidentially pursuing their next steps was particularly heartening and rewarding for all staff present. Our Wilmington Grammar Alumni embody our aspirations and hopes for all students across Endeavour Mat and we are incredibly proud of the independent and accomplished individuals you have become. Our Alumni play a key role in our Careers Programme providing support and inspiration in the shape of talks, one-to-one support, work experience and degree apprenticeship opportunities.

Mrs Maycock has shared her festive Maths Challenges .. and they are fiendishly tricky! Good luck everyone!! (answer to the Vixen Value at the bottom of this blog)

Congratulations to our successful November Maths Challengers:

Charlotte 7E

Umaiza 8R

Abigail 8W

Jesselle-Grace 7C

Ella 7C

Aleha 7E

Caitlin 7E

Emma 9H

Palak 9H

Yakshara 9H

Students in Year 11 ART WGSG visit the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain Gallery! This week our Year 11 Art GCSE students visited the Turner Prize in Art 2024 at the Tate Britain Gallery. The art students viewed the work of the four contemporary artists Pio Abad, Delaine Le Bas, Claudette Johnson and overall winner Jasleen Kaur. The artwork showed a range of genres and styles from figurative mixed media work to installation. This year is the 40^th anniversary of the Turner Prize in Art in which is the UK’s most prestigious National Art Prize awarded by a panel of judges. The students made drawings, written analysis notes and took lots of photographs that will become part of their up-and-coming exam preparation for the final part of their GCSE. The Turner Prize in Art is on show at the Tate Britian Gallery until 16^th February 2024.

Turner Prize 2024: Jasleen Kaur wins with artwork showcasing Scottish Sikh community – BBC News

PFA Update. Thank you for the support given to the PFA over the past two terms. We wish everyone a lovely break and look to catching up on our online meeting on the 15^th January. A meeting invite will be sent out in the New Year.

And please consider signing up for Easyfundraising and Amazon smile is you are doing some last minute Christmas shopping!! Click here for more information

Safeguarding Matters. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you have a concern about a young person at WGSG, please contact the school office or email [email protected] Please note that this email address is only monitored during working hours in term time and school holidays.

If you have an urgent safeguarding concern outside of school hours, we recommend calling the police on 999 or Kent Social Services directly on 03000 411111/ Bexley Social Services on 0203 045 5440.

If you have a wellbeing concern, Kooth is a free online counselling service, providing young people aged 11-25 years with a safe and secure means of accessing support with their emotional health and wellbeing needs from a professional team of qualified counsellors: https://www.kooth.com/

Electronic gifts for children at Christmas. Christmas brings lots of new gadgets and gizmos for young people. Receiving these new devices brings concerns around online safety and how parents can keep their children safe. Please click on the link below and on the attachments with this newsletter for information from the UK Safer Internet Centre and Kent Police on age guidelines, online safety and parental controls. There is also information on the use of E-Scooters. https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers

Parent Teacher Conference on Sextortion. Kent Police will be hosting their first online workshop for parents and teachers. The event will be held on Microsoft teams Wednesday 22nd January 2025: 1600 -1700 hours. The subject covered will be “sextortion” and will give guidance on what this is, signs to look out for and what to do if you or someone you know finds themselves a victim of this type of crime. Please click here to register for the event

Support over the holidays. Please find links below to organisations providing support over the Christmas holiday period:

Mental Health:

Food Banks:

Kids Eat for Free and other meal deals:

Money Saving Expert cheap restaurant deals